Saturday, November 15, 2008

LITTLE HANDS IN MOTION AT PAINTING COMPETITION


Teachers from Lokenath Divine Life Mission street schools celebrated children's day on November 14. All the children were overjoyed when they heard there would be a painting competition. They were given paper, pencils and colored crayons to draw their imagination on paper. Little hands were put in motion. Slowly, slowly their canvases came alive with their scribbles. After coloring their drawings they proudly came up to the teacher to show their drawings. Their eyes and face were gleaming with the joy of creation and excitement that Baba will see their drawings. Baba will award prizes to the winners soon!

Monday, October 20, 2008

TINY GIRL'S BURNS HEALED AT LDLM MOBILE MEDICAL CLINIC




This 3 year old child named Radhika Paswan is a regular patient to our Mobile Medical Clinic. Her father is a day laborer and mother is a housewife. They live in a very small thatch roofed hut. When Radhika was 1 year old she suffered from burn injuries caused by a cooking accident at home. She suffered from multiple burn injuries. Our mobile medical van came to her rescue as there is no nearby hospital. They cannot afford the costly medical treatment.


She was treated for burn injuries through Homeopathy. She was thoroughly cured over time. Now she suffers from allergic cough and is undergoing treatment from mission’s doctors. She comes to Mission’s mobile medical clinic with her mother and knows that if she takes the medicines she will be cured.


Our mobile medical van serves so many poor families like Radhika who live in the slums of Kolkata. We call it the lifeline of the slums, giving medical advice, medicines, and treatments to the poor and downtrodden. The slum dwellers thank Lokenath Divine Life Mission for carrying on the mobile medical service for over 16 years.

Friday, October 10, 2008

SCHOOL CHILDREN'S FACES LIGHT UP WITH GIFT OF CLOTHES FROM BABA!



On Durga Puja Baba visited Swinhoe Street School. The students were full of joy to see Baba come to their school. The children presented yoga, dance and recitations to Baba and a huge gathering of people from the community. It was so lovely to hear poems from their soft voices. Baba praised each one of them with encouagement and cheers.


It was a true celebration to see the kids faces lighting up as Baba pulled out the most beautiful outfits from the covers and handed them over to the little children.



One by one the children gave Baba greeting cards which they painted with the words “Baba we love you”. Baba was most pleased that the children beautifully painted Baba Lokenath’s picture, who is closest to their hearts.


Tuesday, September 30, 2008

SWINHOE STREET SCHOOL SPONSORED BY USA MEDITATION GROUP


Swinhoe Street School was started by Baba Shuddhaanandaa to give the slum children the feeling that they are important in this world,
and that there are people from their own country and other countries of the world who love them and adore their capabilities and creativity.

The children who come to Swinhoe Street School are from nearby slums in Calcutta. Their parents do menial work such as cleaning people’s homes, and carrying luggage on their heads in the nearby railway station. The road to the slum is a dark narrow lane with small shacks on the both sides. The shacks are so small that it is difficult to believe that any human being can fit into it let alone live in it.

The parents are so poor that they are unable to send their children to school. Some parents force their children to do odd jobs to earn money for the family, robbing the child of their right to go to school and have a natural childhood. These children are abused daily at home. Some of the children roam the streets the whole day doing all kinds of mischievous activities. Our mission’s main role is to make them feel that they are loved. One of the major focuses of the street schools is to fight the curse of child labor. The Mission continually educates the parents on the need for education for the children and encourages them to not just think of earning some money out of their child's labor.

The major challenge for the Mission is to first bring the children to the school and then hold their attention. To facilitate that major focus is given to the Play Way Method of education. Along with literacy they are continually encouraged to explore their innate creativity and playfulness.
The children are offered training on the practice of Hatha yoga, Meditation, Creative art, Dancing apart from literacy. The initial batches of students from this school were groomed enough to join better schools run by government and private houses. Our task was to create interest in their hearts through fun, playful education and love. Our experience says what they needed most is for somebody to say they are wonderful children of God and deserve to become worthy citizens of mother India.

The Naperville, Il, USA Meditation Group has recently agreed to sponsor this school. Their contributions will cover a honorarium for teachers, school supplies, daily snacks for the children, and an outfit of clothing during the holiday season. We on behalf of Lokenath Divine Life Mission in Calcutta express our sense of gratitude to the Naperville Meditation Group for their generosity and love for these destitute yet smiling children of God.

GARCHA SCHOOL CHILD DRAWS PICTURE OF BABA LOKENATH

Report by Babai,
Today I made a visit to Garcha school. It was lovely to see the children enjoying their education through laughter and fun. I had lots of fun with them. I asked them," Let's see how well you can draw." They were full of confidence! One by one everybody came to the board to show me their drawing skills. I was amazed to see a child draw Baba Lokenath on the board . Now I asked him, "Can you write the name of Lokenath Baba in English". He said yes and wrote Baba's name on the board. As I took the picture in my camera, they all came trooping to me to see their picture. They are so blessed with Baba's eternal blessings.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Young, Inspiring Trailblazers for the Street Schools and Active Compassion


Carleen Sinton and Jamey Rossano, two 12 year old friends who live in Boston, have been collecting and sending money for the street schools for over a year now. Last Fall, after Carleen's grandma told them about the street schools, Carleen and Jamey got very excited. They wanted to adopt a school. They wanted to do something for these children who had so much less than they did! They quickly got to work raising money to help support the schools. During the school year, they created a program they called "Save The Change" and got their families to save all their coins. Their efforts generated two separate $100 contributions for the schools . Carleen's grandparents were so inspired by Carleen and Jamey's efforts that they sent $400 for the street schools. Then this past summer Carleen started making bracelets to sell in order to raise more money. She makes bracelets and sells them for $1 each; so far, she has raised $23. Jamey has also started making bracelets now; he plans to sell them in his Mother's store. Carleen and Jamey have also sent letters, artwork and photos over to the street schools, so that the children in the schools can learn something about other people in the world, and will know that others in the world love them and think about them. One of Carleen and Jamey's goals is to get some bit of communication going with the children and themselves. (If anyone would be interested in periodically translating a few letters into Bengali from English, and from English to Bengali for that purpose, please email raehack@comcast.netto volunteer). We all have a lot to learn from Carleen and Jamey, their open hearted vision and concentrated effort to reach out and serve others in need.=

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Feeding the Hungry on the Streets of Calcutta,India

Thank you Sue Berg for Norman’s kind donation of $171 toward feeding 342 blessed souls who are destitute on the streets of Calcutta under Anna Dana Seva (Blessed Food for the Poor Project) through www.feelinghearts.org which is our Mission’s exclusive projects website.

It is so heartening to know Norman saved 1 dollar bills towards this humanitarian cause. Norman sets the precedence which we are sure many other generous and compassionate people will follow. Thank you Norman! Thank you, Sue Berg for feeding the hungry!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Garcha Street School Recently Sponsored



Garcha Street school was established by Baba Shuddhaanandaa in the year 1995. The people of Garcha are mainly migrant labourers from neigbouring states doing menial jobs in kolkata and are from lower starta of the society. The mission wants to pull them out of social deprivations. The children are offered training on the practice of hatha yoga, meditation, creative art, dancing apart from literacy.

The initial batches of students from this school were groomed enough to join better schools run by government and private houses. Our task was to create interest in their hearts through fun, playful education and love.

Our experience says what they needed most is for somebody to say they are wonderful children of god and deserve to become worthy citizens of mother India. Love has the power to transform and raise the spirits of each soul to its highest sense of Freedom.

We on behalf of Lokenath divine Life Mission in Calcutta do express our sense of gratitude and thankfulness to Connie Weaver for her generosity and love for these destitute yet smiling children of God.